Sasuke's Conviction
by EvilFuzzy9
Summary: Naruto could sense evil and negative emotions. He could feel the pain and anger in the hearts of others. So why was he still so certain that he could bring Sasuke back?


**Sasuke's Conviction**

A _Naruto_ oneshot

By

EvilFuzzy9

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Rating: K+

Genre: Friendship/Drama

Characters/Pairings: Sasuke U. [N/A]

Summary: Naruto could sense evil and negative emotions. He could feel the pain and anger in the hearts of others. So why was he still so certain that he could bring Sasuke back?

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Sasuke understood what had to be done. He understood it, even if nobody else did. Even as the reanimated bodies of the past hokage faded into dust, he felt the conviction grow within his heart.

He wasn't happy to think it. He didn't want to do this. Part of him... _most_ _of him_ wanted to live, to return, to rest in peace with a family and friends. But so many things were going through his mind, and he couldn't dismiss them as nothing. The more he had learned, the greater his conviction had grown.

What it meant to be shinobi... the cycle of hate and revenge... the curse of the Uchiha, and their history with the Senju...

Kaguya, Zetsu. The Sage of Six Paths. The Tailed Beasts.

Indra and Asura.

It went back so far, and it was laid so deeply, woven into every thread of this bloody tapestry. Everything that had happened, as far back as anyone could remember, all the sorrow and the anger and the senseless, meaningless strife, could be traced to those damnable roots. So much of it seemed bound up with the tale of his clan, of the descendants of the Sage, and the endless conflict between those two, long dead brothers.

He knew it couldn't go on like this. He felt it with as much certainty as the beat of his own heart. Every time the two of them clashed it became more dire, the stakes higher and stage bigger. The world as they knew it had almost been brought to an end because of this grudge, this bad blood. It was horrible. Where might it go next? How much more terrible would be the next battle of the Incarnates?

This wasn't just a question of peace, of fostering understanding among men or ordering the world in a just and sensible way. No matter what was done now, it seemed, things would find their way back to conflict and evil. They always had.

Sasuke was tired. So terribly tired.

He didn't even feel angry, anymore. He couldn't find it in himself to draw forth the hate that had once driven him. Apathy weighed down on him, making all paths seem vain and laborious. His eyes were keener than they had ever been, but he could no longer pierce the darkness in which he had sought to shroud himself. He remembered the light, reminded of simpler and happier times, of hope and love and kinship, and as a man dazzled by a shaft of the sun he found the gloom of his chosen solitude to seem that much blacker and bleaker.

They had reminded him. Being with them had brought it all flooding back. It almost drove him to tears of bitterness. Men were not meant to live in shadow, he realized, or to hide themselves in darkness. They were meant to walk under the sun, and to live in a world of light. Now he missed even the cold, remote glitter of stars, having brought himself so far into the deepest darkness of the world.

Sasuke found himself pining for the light, hating the darkness into which he had delved. Yet he saw no way back, no way to turn from the path now that he had walked it so far, and again the grim understanding seized his heart. Something _had_ to be done. Defeating Kaguya solved nothing. Men had fought and warred and hated before she ever came, and they would fight and war and hate now that she was sealed away.

It was in their nature. Men desired peace, and they conceived of righteousness, yet their base condition left them incapable of realizing these ideals, and in this gulf between what was good and what _was_ could be found all the evils of human nature. In seeking to achieve the ideal they fell short, and because of this they suffered and ultimately despaired. Many abandoned true good as impossible, and growing calloused to virtue spoke and dealt cynically in all matters.

Revenge could solve nothing. It would only feed the endless cycle. Sasuke could see this now. He understood it, he had _lived_ it and felt its truth in his own deeds. Killing Itachi brought him only grief and regret. Killing Danzo brought him no peace. What would destroying the Leaf have done? Even had it salved his own torment of soul, would it not also have engendered hatred and suffering in countless others?

A man could not live thinking only of himself and his own. There came a time in life where one had to look outside and see that all others were like himself, men and women no different in the fundamental nature of flesh and soul. They bled as he did, and they hurt as he did. Afflicting them in "revenge" would have solved nothing, and would indeed have made him worse than even those who had wronged him.

Evil begat evil. Whether his clan's intent had been just or not, it would have led to much grief and turmoil. Countless people would have died and suffered, and many more still would have perished in wars to come as the balance was upset and rival states lunged forth, seeking to rip Konoha down, or conquer it, in its weakened state after the coup. And even if no war were to come after, still his clan would have inevitably done much evil to the end of victory, if it were not destroyed first.

Darkness followed their footsteps. They were ill-fated, and all their history seemed now to Sasuke a long and bitter strife without purpose or hope of final victory. It was meaningless. Revenge was vain, nothing but the evil born of wounded hearts—and an evil deed was not made less evil because its victim had himself done evil.

There was no justice in the world. What was justice but revenge by another name? They were the same, in the end, or achieved the same end at least, used but as a tool to please the wronged regardless of what was truly deserved. Justice was nothing. Law solved nothing. Rule by force bred only resentment, and love alone could accomplish aught but to leave one vulnerable.

He didn't know if there _was_ a solution. He couldn't see any way to solve the problem of human nature. The only matter within the reach of his power and wit, it seemed, was the one in which he himself had for so long played this unwitting part.

Indra and Asura, and the curse of the Uchiha. It was the failings of his most distant ancestors, and the grudges they had passed on to their descendants through all the long and wearisome years, that Sasuke felt he had to solve. He could try, at least, and failing that—

—well, he had no clear notion. He honestly didn't see any way to fix this.

He didn't feel like he had any right to try and solve it. After everything he had done... he was too deep into the darkness. He couldn't see any way but one. He could not now return to the light. It seemed far too late for that.

He would destroy, or be destroyed. He would conquer and rule, taking up the mantle of Indra and Madara to become the enemy of the world, a Morgoth to oppress and unite all people.

He would triumph, or he would be vanquished.

It seemed the only way things now could go. It was the only path his feet could still walk.

He would stand alone as a tyrant, or he would die at the hand of his friend.

 _His friend._

That bond was still unbroken, even after all that had happened. It was like a chain, a fetter that held him back from the darkness. The thought of it, and the memory of that camaraderie, restrained him even now.

He did not hate it. He wished things could have been otherwise.

But his eyes could see no other path.

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A/N: This oneshot stems from a notion I've had for a while now, regarding Naruto's continuing determination to save Sasuke during their final battle, and the apparent abruptness and left-field emergence of Sasuke's grand plan. You can infer it, perhaps, from the summary and the story's contents. I think Sasuke wasn't committed to his plan, or that in some way his determination to carry it through was weak or shallowly founded.

And Naruto _can_ sense emotions and evil intent—he was able to tell the zetsu clones from their originals, and to sense Kisame without actually being able to feel his chakra. Remembering this makes some sense of a _lot_ of stuff in the last leg of the story.

Also, it's been a while since I've written a oneshot of this sort. It's nice to do this now and then, just sit down and briefly examine a character or situation.

 **Updated:** 1-22-17

 **TTFN and R &R!**

– — ❤


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